Length and width of sepal and petal for three northern american species
of iris. The
data on iris setosa canadensis
and iris versicolor has been
used by R. A. Fisher to illustrate linear
discriminance analysis. The data on iris
virginica have been added as
an extension.
Length and width of sepal and petal are just convenient coordinates
suggested by what can easily be measured.
Using sepal length*sepal
width and petal length*petal width as a crude approximation to the area
coverd by sepal and petal gives a pair of coordinates which may have
more botanical meaning. Using these coordinates, all three species in
this data set can be separated, with just three misclassifications. Iris setosa and iris versicolor are separated
perfectly.
If you want to publish a
classification procedure using the iris data set as an illustration,
make sure you have a better performance.
Literature:
Fisher, R.A. (1936). The use of
multiple measurements in taxonomic problems. Ann. Eugenics 7,
Pt. II, 179-188.
